Absolutely charming little jaunt around the galaxy, with no particular stakes and very little sense of danger. The human race is in diaspora, our planet Earth ravaged by pollution and the like. The book follows the crew of a ship that threads through subspace, laying a trail for other ships to follow. (It's the needle-and-thread metaphor Mrs Whatsit used in a Wrinkle in Time, you know.)

A variety of humans from various backgrounds and planets and a few aliens round out the crew. You've got a girl on the run from her past, the last of his kind, the forbidden romance, etc. The interactions between the crew members, especially the aliens, were sensitively drawn, with enough swashbucklery and space pirates to keep it from getting too talky. Felt old school in a way that wasn't mothballed or barnacled with crap: the space opera as road trip, the alien as the self. Nice.